Somehow when we travel, everything seems brighter, landscapes more spectacular, and foliage greener.

St. Patrick’s Day is the “greenest” day of the year, so in honor of the day, here are some green images from our travels…

“The Mound” and Castle Rock in Edinburgh

Ferns on the Big Island of Hawai’i

Kualoa Ranch on Oahu, where Jurassic Park was filmed

Water Lilies and a willow tree at the Summer Palace in Beijing

One of the lovely paths on the Air Line Trail in Connecticut, close to home

And just to show how wrong we can be, my own driveway!

Of course, being of half Scottish descent. my ancestors who spent time living in Ireland spent their time in Northern Ireland as Ulstermen, or more pointedly, Orangemen.

When I was a kid, and everyone wore green on St. Paddy’s Day, my grandmother tried to make we wear orange (although Orangemen do have their own day, July 12th – we always went to that parade!), or at least made sure I wasn’t dressed in green.

But at school, you got spanked if you didn’t wear green, so I used to sneak my Girl Scout sweater into my bag, and put it on as soon as I got to school. I didn’t get the significance of the Irish TriColor – Green for the Gaelic Irish (now predominantly Catholic), Orange for the followers of William of Orange (now predominantly Protestant), and white for the hope of peace between them. 165 years after it was designed, that hope is still there, but not a reality.

Here’s hoping that will change in our lifetime. In the meantime, at least in the US, on March 17th, everybody embraces the celebration of the Gaelic Irish heritage, and we all party like leprechauns. (After all, I’m as Gaelic as the next Scot – or least half as Gaelic!)

Erin go Bragh!

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This post is in response to a weekly Travel Theme challenge by Ailsa of WheresMyBackpack, on the subject: Green (for St. Patrick’s Day). To see other bloggers’ responses and get more info on her challenge, click here.

A beautiful selection of greens. Particularly love the Summer Palace shot! Our flag has the same colours you know, (different orientation though with horizontal stripes and a blue Ashoka wheel in the centre)!

Thanks, Madhu! Flags are so interesting. I remember explaining to my young friends that green isn’t the only color on the Irish flag, and I still remember when I first realized hat the Union Jack contains both St. Andrew’s cross and the cross of St. George! 😉

thanks for telling me about the flag, if only that hope became a reality … luckily for me my irish ancestor was sent to NSW as a convict long ago … not as green here but more chance of surviving at that time 🙂

I enjoyed this post! I have a similar … kind of … story from my childhood. My first name (Kathleen) paired with my very Irish maiden name always made me a celebrity on St Patrick’s day in grammar school. BUT we were protestant, and so, not understanding anything, I shunned the green and wore orange, trying to act like I knew what I was doing. Later, as an adult, tracing my family history I learned my Irish grandfather was indeed Catholic (he died long before I was born), but it was my father who had stepped away from the Catholic church and went the protestant road when he married my mother. Silly child, me!

I think it was about 5-6 years ago that I went to Ireland with some students and we were able to travel to Northern Ireland. They were just beginning to learn about tourism. I have some great photos of murals on buildings that I might post.

If your ancestors come from anywhere on the British Islas you may enjoy poking around on origins.net. I found my grandparents’ birth certificates, my great-grandparents’ marriage license, and more. Because of the Dublin fire, some Irish records are lost, but parish and landowner records are still available!